Ezra Sihite – The Indonesian government on Tuesday blamed a lack of legal parking spaces in New York City for the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid parking tickets its diplomatic officials have racked up.

"This is not a new problem. It has been happening a long time," Triyono Wibowo, the deputy foreign minister, said on Tuesday.

Of 35 embassy staff members in New York, only one was assigned a parking space, he said. Indonesia owes the city $725,000 in unpaid parking tickets, though it is far from alone.

New York is owed nearly $17 million in parking tickets issued to diplomats from different countries. The city said unpaid tickets totaled $16.7 million through the end of July. Egypt topped the deadbeat list with $1.9 million in tickets, followed by Nigeria with about $1 million. Indonesia's $725,000 was third highest.

Triyono said the Diplomat Community Representative Office in New York was seeking a solution to the issue. He added that the city should provide sufficient parking for all Indonesian diplomats.

Priyo Budi Santoso, the House deputy speaker from the Golkar Party, said there should be a special dispensation regarding parking for diplomats. "It is customary that diplomats from closely related countries get special treatment," he said.

Another House deputy speaker, Pramono Anung, from the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said the tickets racked up by diplomats were an embarrassment to the country. He demanded the Foreign Affairs Ministry pay up.

"It's shameful and I am sorry if our diplomats owe parking fines," he said. "We want the Foreign Affairs Ministry to pay the fines, otherwise this small amount of money will embarrass the country."